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The celebrated cartoonist recalls his days with Busybee.
I can go on for hours talking about Busybee.
A few days ago I had a small chat on the phone with him. His first sentence, whenever I used to call him, would be, "What's the latest news?" I will miss that.
I used to work with Behram at the Times of India. I was a cartoonist at the Evening News of India where he started his column, Round and About.
He then left ToI and joined Mid-day. At the same time, I left ToI and joined Mid-day to work with him. When he started Afternoon, I too shifted. So, the link with him has been for very long. And, it won't be easy to forget.
We used to meet often during the days of prohibition at Dhobi Talao, Colaba, and over a glass of whisky speak of our common interests. We were ardent movie watchers and used to discuss this for hours.
Bombay will never be the same without Behram. I think nobody knew Bombay as well as he did, I think nobody can write about Bombay like him. He used to go to small restaurants in Mohammed Ali Road, Dadar and then to unknown places from where he graduated to cocktail parties.
We were like a sort of gossip group, Vinod Mehta, now editor of Outlook, and occasionally Khushwant Singh, Tara Patel and Bachi Karkaria used to join us.
When I look back, I feel he was a very successful journalist. He started from nothing and he built up the Afternoon group. After he got married, he got tremendous support from Farzana, especially on the management side.
He used to give many young journalists breaks. Success never went to his head. He was very calm, and cheered up after a couple of drinks. We had plans of writing a book. He told me to illustrate his writing, but somehow that idea never struck.
He had no ideology -- his main ideology was to write on the funny side of life. He used to make people smile after making them read about Bolshoi, his dog that never existed.
Mario Miranda spoke to Syed Firdaus Ashraf
RELATED LINKS: Editor Behram Contractor passes away 'Behram exuded life in his writings' Behram 'Busybee' Contractor
EXTERNAL LINKS: Afternoon House's heartbeat has stopped Goodbye, Behram
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